The Book of God

In The Book of God, Walter Wangerin does a magnificent job with this effort to write the broad scope of the Bible, from the call of Abraham to the birth and development of the Christian church, in a refreshing, gripping way. Wangerin's command of the language--prose and poetry alike--is no surprise, but I must confess to surprise and delight at his ability to make the old, familiar, oft-read accounts of Scripture seem eye-openingly new.

It's not quite "The Bible as a Novel," as the subtitle has it. While Wangerin is an artful novelist, I suspect even he would admit that the book's structure and plot represent a compromise between the Biblical narrative and the novelist's tasks. But it is an admirable achievement, nonetheless.

The Book of God's 850 pages seem short, and familiar and less-familiar passages ring with music and intrigue...a magnum opus of an already accomplished author.